Weather News

South Australia's welcome August rain

Ben Domensino,
Tuesday August 7, 2018 - 16:08 EST

Parts of South Australia are already having a wetter than average August, with two more rain-bearing fronts set to drench the state's south this week.

South Australia registered its driest July in 19 years, continuing an uninterrupted run of drier than usual months in 2018 for the state as a whole. At the end of July, some areas places were having one of their driest starts to a year on record.

Cleve's 120mm of rain between January and July was 104mm below its long-term average for this period and their driest first half of a year since 1957.

Nearby, Kimba only received 104mm in the first six months of 2018, its driest such period in 33 years.

Adelaide's Kent Town hasn't endured a drier start to a year since 2006, with just 232mm of its usual 317mm falling during the last six months.

After this extended run of dry months, a flurry of cold fronts brought welcome rain to southern parts of the state during the opening week of August.

As of 9am on Tuesday, a number of locations in the state's south and west had already exceeded their average rainfall totals for August, including Ceduna (38mm), Wudinna (41mm) and Warooka (65mm). For Ceduna and Wudinna, this is already the wettest August in three years.

Looking ahead, another cold front will bring a burst of showers and potentially damaging winds to southern parts of SA on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning. A stronger front will then bring more powerful winds and heavier, more widespread rain to the southern half of the state from Friday into the weekend.

Almost all of the rain between now and Sunday will fall south of Goyder's Line - a virtual boundary separating the state's crop-bearing agricultural land in the south from the drier pastoral districts to the north.

Image: Forecast rain between Tuesday and Sunday according to the ECMWF model.

The two impending frontal systems should together bring 20-40mm of rain across South Australia's southern agricultural areas by the end of Sunday, with lighter totals of 10-20mm across the northern agricultural areas.

Use the Search Bar above

Click "Set My Local"

Adelaide and Melbourne are among the most dangerous Australian capital cities to live in during the summer months, with residents more at risk of death during an extreme heatwave, a recent study has found.